Editor’s Note: Watches & Wonders (formerly SIHH) has moved online and Baselworld 2020 is canceled, but that hasn’t stopped watch brands large and small from debuting their new wares. Stay on top of this year’s best new watch releases here.
In perhaps the mother of all collabs, two brands that represent the world of high-end independent watchmaking have partnered to celebrate their respective 15-year anniversaries: MB&F and H. Moser & Cie. have each released a watch that incorporates recognizable design elements as well as techniques from the other, and the resulting watches both feel as natural and coherent as if they’d come from a single brand.
These are, of course, brands with highly avant-garde streaks. What ties each of the new watches together are mechanical elements dramatically exposed above a “fumé” dial execution. The former is unmistakably MB&F whereas the latter is a signature of Moser.
Moser’s Endeavour Cylindrical Tourbillon watch takes some design inspiration from an MB&F timepiece called the Flying T, with a tall, bubble-like sapphire crystal that allows room for a vertically tilted sapphire dial and a protruding tourbillon structure. While the concept for both watches is similar, some of the technical details are different, and the tourbillon is even in a different spot than it is on the Flying T. Moser’s new watch represents something greater than a mere combination of off-the-shelf elements and existing designs.
MB&F’s LM101 watch, on the other hand, places the movement’s balance (its regulating mechanism) above the dial, supported by two striking bridges. Here the dial not only incorporates Moser’s smoked (fumé) style but also the brand’s famously minimalist approach: without any indices, it’ll perhaps be a slight challenge to read the time on the small subdial that indicates the hours and minutes.
Both watches come in a range of dial colors, each limited to 15 examples, making for 135 total units between the two models. The H. Moser Endeavour Cylindrical Tourbillon has a price of $79,000 and the MB&F LM101 costs $52,000
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